"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"
Welcome to Issue 98 of Quest News. We have 13 hours of off-the-job training for our apprentices in care and education to read and learn.
Significant Events:
Aug 15 - Cavernoma Awareness Day 2023
Aug 18 - Never Give Up Day 2023
Aug 19 - World Photo Day 2023
Aug 19 - World Humanitarian Day 2023
Aug 20 - Poetry Bears Picnic 2023
Legislation/Regulation of the week
Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (2015)
The SEND Code of Practice 2015 refers to the Special Educational Needs and Disability framework, which provides guidance to organisations working with, and providing support to, children and young people (0 to 25 years old) with special educational needs and disabilities.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins)
Please remember to review this in your policy/legislation review workbook)
Videos of the week
Snaptrap: Is your Child Safe?
Reporter Charanpreet Khaira goes undercover to investigate how children are being exploited by drugs gangs on social media. She speaks to a victim who tells us how she was groomed online as a teenager and forced into a world of crime and sex abuse. An ex-gang member also reveals how he was involved in trafficking children and feared for his life.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
I want to go Home
96-year-old Lily has been stuck in a hospital bed for 11 months. She just wants to go home, but her council couldn’t find carers to look after her.
The programme discovers just how many other people there are like Lily, and reveals the wider impact that a shortage of carers is having – including on the NHS. More money may be part of the solution, but can the government afford it? Wyre Davies investigates.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Event of the week
What is the Poetry Bears Picnic?
The Poetry Bears Picnic is a fun event for children and adults, that you can undertake by bringing along your favourite teddy, as your poetry bear.
(This can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Completing activities Approx. 60 mins)
Safeguarding & ED & I
KCSiE 2023: Key themes for DSLs
In little over 2 weeks, the updated version of Keeping Children Safe in Education becomes live statutory guidance.
There aren't huge changes but those there are, are already causing DSLs some concern.
I've set out the key themes in a blog you can read here.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
(Podcast) Domestic abuse support in the workplace
NSPCC Learning has published a podcast episode on domestic abuse and how support in the workplace can help keep children safe. The episode features experts from the NSPCC Helpline and looks at what professionals can do to support and safeguard colleagues who experience domestic abuse.
(listening to this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Coercive control
NSPCC Learning has published a Helplines insight briefing on coercive control highlighting its impact on the safety, behaviour, and wellbeing of children. The briefing collates data from contacts to the NSPCC Helpline and Childline in 2022/23. Findings from 01 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 show 4,412 NSPCC Helpline contacts from adults and 1,096 Childline counselling sessions with children and young people whose main concerns were domestic abuse. Contacts included experiences of: threats and coercion; continual emotional mistreatment; and economic and financial abuse.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 50 mins)
Kinship care
The Family Rights Group (FRG) and other charities have created a guide on Ukrainian children and young people who are in kinship care in England. The guidance sets out key immigration and child welfare information relevant for practitioners and families, such as information on parental responsibility and specialist support available.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
School non-attendance
Foundations, the new What Works Centre for Children and Families, has published a literature review on school non-attendance of children with a social worker in the UK. The review examines extent, risk factors and interventions. Findings include: children with social workers in the UK have higher exclusion rates than children without a social worker; placement type, gender, and school instability were identified as risk factors for non-attendance; and the research evidence for interventions improving school non-attendance was relatively weak. The report recommends that policymakers look at how to best support professionals on the ‘front line’ of school non-attendance.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Supported accommodation
Ofsted has published new interim guidance for providers of supported accommodation in England. The guidance sets out how providers will be regulated, and what actions Ofsted can take if regulations are not followed.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Children in custody
The National Chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) has written a letter to the Prisons Minister calling for improved conditions for children in young offender institutions (YOIs) in England. The letter outlines issues across YOIs including shortfalls in care and support.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
How did parents’ experiences in the labour market shape children’s social and emotional development during the pandemic?
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published a report on parents’ experiences in the UK labour market during the pandemic and the impact on the social and emotional development of children. Findings include: parents reported that their children’s social and behavioural difficulties increased during the first year of the pandemic; and the socio-emotional skills of children whose families experienced an unstable labour market were worse than children whose families experienced a stable labour market.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Care experienced children
The Children’s Commissioner for England has launched a survey focusing on whether care experience should become a protected characteristic. The Commissioner is seeking views from: children in care; care experienced people; and professionals who work with care leavers. Findings from the survey will be shared with the Government.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
#WakeUpWednesday: What Parents & Carers Need to Know about Threads
100 million signups in its first five days. Then a reported 50% drop in daily users the following week. Threads’ start to life as the high-profile new kid on the social media block has certainly been a tale of extremes so far.
One thing that has remained fairly consistent, however, is some commentators' unease over potential hazards such as data collection and the platform’s compatibility with open networking protocols. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide gathers the essential info you need on Threads.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
AMHPs lack time for ‘extremely important’ pre-assessment work with people in crisis, finds survey
Approved mental health professionals 'stretched beyond capacity', warn service leaders, after research highlights value practitioners see in work prior to Mental Health Act assessments in improving outcomes
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Jacob Crouch: action taken to protect babies following case, says safeguarding body
From the 'barbaric' treatment of autistic people and those with learning disabilities in mental health units to a new funding programme for social care research, here's this week in social work
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Health & Safety
BOHS Report Urges Action To Protect Women From Getting Ill Because Of Work
The British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) has published a report calling for measures to protect women from getting ill because of work.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Inclusive PPE – more than protection?
There are brands out there flying the flag for sustainable, high quality, ethically produced, inclusive PPE, and yet businesses continue to buy heaps of high-vis landfill fodder that turns to rags in less than five industrial launders. Why are zips breaking, seams splitting, holes tearing, and reflective bands turning grey in the multiple sets of PPE we’re needing to buy each year?
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Who can save us from ‘global boiling’?
With fires raging across so many countries this summer, how does IOSH see the climate crisis? What can OSH professionals do to help? We thought we’d need some extra brain power on this one, so we invited two leading thinkers at IOSH to share their views - Dr Ivan Williams Jimenez, our Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager and Dr Christopher Davis, IOSH Thought Leadership Manager
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Wider Curriculum
Chief social worker and adult PSWs issue assessment guidance
Guide to proportionate assessments covers use of virtual processes and role of non-qualified staff, and comes in aftermath of BASW concerns over potential dilution of social work role
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
‘You can literally change a young person’s life’: an 18-year-old’s message for social workers
In Community Care Inform’s latest podcast episode, Dan – a care-experienced young person living in semi-independent accommodation – shares his experiences of, and advice for, social workers
(Reading and listening to this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Children more likely to be reunified when parents are referred to family drug and alcohol court – research
However, study limitations means impact cannot be attributed entirely to FDACs, so further research is needed to evaluate whether they improve outcomes, says evidence body Foundations
(Reading and listening to this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Social work’s public image ‘pushing people out of frontline roles and making families distrustful’
Staff reluctant to work in a 'negative and critical environment', while NQSWs say their families have expressed concern about their career choice, finds survey of social workers in London and the South East
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
